Onondaga Creekwalk In View: Next phases under construction hold great promise

John Berry/The Post-Standard
PROGRESS: Jim Smith of M.A. Bongiovanni builders works Aug. 5 on the Onondaga Creekwalk near a ramp between West Street and Herald Place in downtown Syra´cuse.

There’s a long, long trail a-winding ...

Well, some day there may be a trail winding 10 miles along Onondaga Creek through the city of Syracuse.

Imagine the Onondaga Creekwalk as a serene, scenic waterside path, wide enough to accommodate pedestrians, skateboarders, in-line skaters, bicyclists and people with disabilities.

That vision took shape back in the 1980s. Yet today, it is a short, short trail a-winding: barely two-thirds of a mile of the creekwalk is finished. Still, it’s enough to give a tantalizing glimpse of what could become a unique recreational asset, reviving interest in the city and its natural environment. Onondaga Creek, a tributary revered in Iroquois culture and all but forgotten during Syracuse’s early boom times, finally would take its proper place in the urban landscape.

You can see work under way now along the largely hidden subterranean waterway between Armory Square and Franklin Square. It’s part of a $9.9 million project, most of it federal funds, that also will include a short spur linking the existing Franklin Square creekwalk to the other existing portion bordering Syracuse’s Inner Harbor and barge canal. The last section extends north from Bear Street to the canal’s outlet at Onondaga Lake.

If all goes as envisioned by planners, cyclists one day could park their cars at the improved, environmentally friendly terminus off Jefferson Street in Armory Square, unload their bikes and start out along the Onondaga Creekwalk that bisects the city, pick up a county trail extending all the way around Onondaga Lake, and return on the creekwalk to their starting point.

There’s a long way to go. The lake loop trail is not yet a reality. The downtown section of the creekwalk, which began construction in November, is expected to be done by the end of the year. The 2.2-mile Armory Square-Onondaga Lake span could be in place by next summer.

The first part of the extension south of Armory Square has been designed, while the last phase, extending to Dorwin Avenue on the city’s south side, is still more or less a dream.

But if you want to get a feel for what’s in store, take a walk or ride along the completed stretch of creekwalk in Franklin Square. You’ll cross a couple of bridges that offer great views of the creek in its natural state. You’ll get a unique look at the bas-relief mural of native plants created by William Severson on the wall of the Allen building. With birds singing and water flowing, you may even forget for a moment you’re in the heart of a mid-sized city.

Raising Onondaga Creek’s profile as it winds through Syracuse presents logistical challenges. But as construction hums at Armory Square, with both the creekwalk and renovations for a major Urban Outfitters store under way, there’s new promise in the air.